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Marc Marquez gets crew boost at HRC

Published:
31 October 2012

New Moto2 world champion Marc Marquez has been given a major boost after it was confirmed all but one of Casey Stoner’s current factory Honda crew will oversee his much anticipated move to MotoGP in 2013.

HRC has allowed the talented Spaniard to bring his current crew chief Santi Hernandez and one other mechanic from his Moto2 team into Repsol Honda next season.

Stoner’s vastly crew chief Cristian Gabbarini, who helped mastermind the Aussie’s two MotoGP titles with Ducati in 2007 and Honda last season, will supervise Hernandez in a senior technical role.

Gabbarini and Stoner’s technical crew had initially been tipped to move back to Ducati in 2013 to work with Andrea Dovizioso.

But HRC boss Livio Suppo said it was vital for Marquez’s early development to have a crew behind him with proven MotoGP pedigree.

He said: “These bikes are at such a level and so complicated that they can’t be managed alone by a chief technician with no experience in MotoGP. So Cristian will kind of be a chief mechanic that is helping another one. He will be the support to the crew chief. It will be very important for a young rider to have people around him with a lot of experience in MotoGP.

He will have a lot of things to learn and sure there is going to be a lot of pressure because in Spain for a long time he has been seen as the new future star. This world is very rewarding but it is a very high-pressure environment when you arrive as a rookie in arguably the best team in the paddock, so Casey’s crew can help him a lot.”

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